Wasteland
by yangri
Summary: [Quasi-dieselpunk AU] Wandering a wasteland, a girl with no memories of her life discovers the very creature who had overturned the first society. fem!Deidara, fem!Zetsu; infrequent updates.
1. Part I: Hanabi

_**A/N: Inspiration? The Immune System. When we get the flu, it's like WW3 in our bodies.**_

* * *

From far away, Hanabi thought that the world looked like the type of urban landscape she saw in the single history book she had managed to salvage from some nook or cranny. Sometimes, alone, she would climb up to the grassy hilltop overlooking her home, giving her an unbiased view of the wasteland beyond, and the skyline which threatened to seduce with false promises of activity and success.

She would spend hours sitting on the flat top of a rounded rock, which looked as if it had been purposefully carved to be seated upon. She would have her dusty, dog-eared history book spread across her lap, her only clue to any possibility of there being salvation beyond the half-deserted streets which followed like tedious arguments.

Hanabi had not argued with anyone for a long time. Occasionally, she would speak to herself to exercise her vocal chords, which would have otherwise been ragged and worn from disuse.

As soon as the sun dipped beyond the horizon, she would return to the nigh obliterated compound she called home, her book tucked in her dusty satchel and a curved dagger hidden beneath her sleeve.

Her stomach gurgled. _Ah. _She looked down, frowning. _It's too dangerous to go to the store right now. I don't want to encounter anyone this late. I'll wait until tomorrow._

And so Hanabi slept. The next day, Hanabi woke, ate, went to the hilltop, returned at sunset, and slept again. It was the only life she had known for a while now. She had no family or friends. She had never _known _family or friends, but she instinctively knew that they normally existed for comfort and well-being.

_How did I get here? _she often wondered as she sat on her rock, warily eyeing the column of black, billowing smoke arising from a seemingly abandoned building, blowing side to side. _Did someone put me here? _All she knew for certain was that her name was Hanabi, and if she wanted to, she could make her field of vision almost three-hundred and sixty degrees around her head. There was a small blind spot of five to ten degrees at the back of her head, but nobody except her needed to know that.

Her existence wasn't the only mystery. There was some deep, ingrained instinct within her to move her body—her arms, her legs, her shoulders—in specific manners which she knew were for killing. Martial arts, her brain recalled from somewhere she did not know, practice it or be defenseless. That flimsy dagger wouldn't do her much good if she encountered the Hungry or the Others, who she had witnessed first hand shake off bullets like they were nothing. The gunman had been eaten by the Hungry before Hanabi had even been able to see his face.

Hanabi had tried to leave before. She had packed for a week's worth of travel, only to have her hopes sunk when hours and hours of walking had amounted to a fifty-foot concrete wall that even her Gentle Fist wouldn't be able to break through. She had tried. It had left her with painfully bruised knuckles.

Then, not wanting to deal with the dangers of the City, she had resolved to survive in the surrounding forest. But then the animals had come, displaying the same symptoms as the Hungry in the City.

Hanabi much preferred the Hungry compared to the Others, however. The Other came once every two months to slaughter indiscriminately, either unable to recognize and differentiate friend from foe or simply apathetic to everything around them. They wore masks and metal suits—Hanabi had never seen an Other's face before.

She had dreamed of it though. An Other's face—it looked much like hers. She couldn't make sense of it, even now.

_One-thousand and three, one-thousand and four... _If she wanted to stay sane, she would force her brain to work. Count to ten thousand. Count to twenty thousand. Then start again.

Her mind was quite adept, she had come to find, and she swiftly solved problems that were presented to her with efficiency and an almost scary pragmatism. Mostly, such tasks were problems that came with living in the City—dealing with the Hungry, finding temporary flood shelters and sources of food and clean water.

Food would run out soon. It was only a matter of time. There were other humans—people like her, who were neither Hungry nor Other—struggling to survive in the City, and they all avoided each other as much as possible. Another human meant competition for resources. The Other was a bomb dropped every eight weeks, and the Hungry only fed on rotten substances or human flesh. Humans were the ones slowly choking one another of the necessities.

One day, Hanabi knew, the world would end.

* * *

"Again?! Are you serious, hm?" Deidara sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, her brows furrowed. She glared at the man who stood at her doorway, who looked apologetic. Grunting, she pushed her chair back and stood, stalking past him. "Get out of here. I'll handle it, yeah."

"Sorry, Deidara-san."

"Ah, whatever," she waved him off, "Go tend to your girlfriend, Haibara-san. Your shift's nearly over. And if Shizune gives you shit about it, I'll hold her off, hm."

"Deidara-san," he choked, clutching his heart. "You're too kind!"

_What a sap._ Deidara grimaced as she hurried to where she knew trouble was afoot. When she arrived at a nondescript metal door, she whipped out her identification card and presented it at the scanner. Next was the eye scan, which took a little longer, but before long, the doors opened and she was confronted with a scene not for the faint of heart.

"Zetsuko-chan out of control again?" Deidara nonchalantly strolled past the eviscerated body of the Head Scientist of the Zetsu Engineering Research field: Kato Shizune. Her lower body had almost been sliced in half, her intestines spilling out onto the floor. "Where's Shizune-san? The Pods aren't that far away."

"She's not exactly having a field day today," Shizune's assistant, Haruno Sakura, said dryly as she cringed from the hunched figure huddled in the corner. "Having your guts ripped out will do that to you." Her arm was bleeding from a terrible scratch that had torn through her lab coat and her undergarments, too. "Be careful, Deidara."

In response, Deidara merely nudged her out of the way a tad impatiently, glowering at the green-haired little girl crouched in the corner, a puddle of piss at her feet from where she had failed to control her bladder. "Oi," the blonde said flatly. "What do you think you're doing, Zetsuko-chan? Are you trying to disappoint me? Hm? Sasori-no-Danna is going to laugh at me when he finds out that you have a hobby of... taking the piss at the wrong time, hm."

"That was a terrible pun."

"Shut up, Sakura. I'm trying to educate my 'child'." Deidara enunciated the word 'child' in a languid drawl; she held nothing but contempt for the beast that had caused her such humiliation in the past, especially when Sasori's Zetsu-kun seemed to be so well behaved. She held out her hand. "I'm not above physical violence," Zetsuko tried to rip her fingers off with the three rows of teeth she had been blessed with, but Deidara quickly avoided the would-be mutilation and subdued her, the young girl choking when the older woman's hand clamped around her neck and shoved her face-down to the floor, "So don't be bad for okaa-sama, yeah?"

Zetsuko shrieked and thrashed, trying to free herself from Deidara's bruising, iron grip. Snorting, Deidara placed a knee on the small of her back, pressing down hard. A bead of sweat dripped down Sakura's temple when Deidara all but sat on her 'child', one hand on the back of Zetsuko's head—pushing the girl's face into the cold, unforgiving floor—and the other still clutching Zetsuko's scrawny neck.

At that moment, the doors opened up, and Shizune hurried in, wincing when she saw her own mutilated body. Shizune's new body had a shiny sheen on the skin, indicating that she was fresh out of the Pod. Behind her, those who did the cleaning up around here were hardly fazed, clinically removing Shizune's old body from the floor and scooping her remains into a bag.

"Thank goodness for clone technology," the Head Scientist sighed as she surveyed the situation. "I was taking the final blood sample when she suddenly broke free of her restraints," she pointed at the operating table, where the straps had clearly been sawed into two, "and mauled me to death. That's the third time this week I've died!"

"Less bitching, more helping me put this brat back into her cage, hm."

"Like you would know what it feels like," Sakura bit out. "You haven't died once, yet. You don't know what death feels like, so can it."

It was a streak of hers that she was proud of, and Deidara had all the scars to show it, including the thick, fleshy one that ran from the top of her right breast to her jawline. She gave them a cocky smile. "Hmph. I'm sorry I'm incapable of empathizing with the _weak_." She hauled Zetsuko up, the girl's face going blue from the lack of oxygen. It wouldn't kill her, though. She had been engineered to survive worse conditions. "Could one of you mask her, please? I'm getting sick of all the lip she's giving me, yeah."

Sakura groaned as she obliged, strapping a reinforced metal mask around Zetsuko's entire face, which only had a single rectangular hole for her to breathe. "I'm sick of your humor..."

Just minutes later, Zetsuko was secured back into her container, and Deidara looked to Shizune. "Well? Give me updates on her condition."

If Shizune was annoyed at the way Deidara spoke to her, she did a good job of not showing it. "Mostly the same, though her strength and overall battle power has increased by a considerate amount. That was clearly shown by her ripping through iron without even tapping into her abilities. Sakura," she added to her assistant, "Make a note to replace and reinforce the manacles."

"Got it, Shizune-senpai." The pink-haired teenager dutifully scribbled down Shizune's request on the notepad she carried in the breast pocket of her lab coat.

"Interesting..." Deidara had a small smile on her face. Then she turned, making to leave.

"Wait!" Shizune called. "Don't you want to hear the rest—"

"No. I'm good." Deidara glanced back once as she walked out. "In this world... strength and power determine everything."

When she was gone and definitely out of earshot, Sakura deadpanned, "For everybody's sake, I hope she doesn't have a kid in the future."

"If she even survives long enough."

"Huh?" Sakura gave the Head Scientist a curious look. "She has a Pod, doesn't she?"

"Aa. Her own enemy is her stubbornness and her mindset." Shizune exhaled deeply. "And she's never gotten along with the Five Kage and their Fellowship... has she?"

* * *

Moaning, Naruto practically collapsed on the floor of the cafeteria. "Man, I'm beat! Why is training so hard, 'ttebayo!"

"Get up, Naruto-baka!" Ino rolled her eyes as she practically dragged him to an empty table. "The Armored Forces aren't to be taken lightly, you know! You should have known what you were getting into."

"If I knew my partner was such a bitch, I wouldn't have entered," he muttered under his breath.

"Wanna say that again, wise guy?"

"Erk!" _Geez, Ino is so scary...! Kinda like Sakura-chan, but worse!_

Ino sat cross-armed and straight-backed like she hadn't been sparring intensively with the rest of their training squad just ten minutes ago. She was the strongest out of their cohort this year, and kind of a stickler for the rules. Naruto had only witnessed her girly side once, and he often wondered how _Ino who loved shopping_ and _Ino who loved kicking ass_ were even the same person.

"I'm gonna get a tofu burger and a salad," Ino stated, softening a little when she saw how dead on his feet Naruto looked. "Do you want anything?"

"Uhh... Do they have ramen?"

He asked this every time they came to the Armored Forces' (AF) cafeteria. "The answer is still no, Naruto. I don't think enough people signed your petition to include ramen on the menu last time."

"Damn it!"

"Just tell me what you want, already, stupid."

"Mrrgghh...! Just a normal burger, I guess. S'not like they have anything better in this shithole."

When Ino returned with their food, Naruto was looking a little more awake.

"Kiba's having a gathering on Saturday," he said as he ate his burger, showing Ino mouthfuls of ground up meat and lettuce.

"Ew. Don't talk while you eat, you slob. And close your mouth when you chew, too!"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto swallowed, clearing his throat. "Like I was _saying_ before you _rudely_ interrupted—"

Ino flipped him off casually.

"—Kiba's having a gathering this Saturday and he's inviting everyone. Even Hinata-chan. So, I was wondering if you could talk to her and, y'know, invite her."

"Why can't you do it, huh, Naruto-baka? I don't really talk that much with Hinata-chan anyway. It's not like we're friends or anything." Ino twirled her fork in her salad bowl contemplatively. "I think we should just leave her alone. I don't think she really likes us."

"That's what everybody thinks, but Kiba said that he's talked to her once, and she seemed really nice." Naruto threw his hands behind his back. "I dunno, Ino—I don't want to judge her too quickly. That's kinda jerky, y'know?"

"Yeah, well... Ugh, fine! Whatever! I'll go talk to her."

"You will?!" Naruto whooped, leaning across the table and capturing a spluttering Ino in a bone-crushing hug. "You're not an ice queen after all!"

"Let go of me, doofus!"

* * *

The Hungry were evolving.

Hanabi's breathing quickened as she pressed herself a brick partition, legs trembling as the tell-tale groans and moans of her enemy echoed behind her, opposite the stone.

_Calm down. Just breathe, _she coached herself, trying not to panic.

Recently, the Hungry had started moving faster and generally displaying more aggression. Just yesterday, she had witnessed a group of them fighting over a faceless human corpse, hissing and spitting at one another.

_The compound isn't safe anymore. I have to leave. _When all went silent, Hanabi warily peered around the partition. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Without wasting anymore time, she darted off toward the treeline in the far distance, trying to keep her footsteps as silent as possible. She didn't know how responsive the Hungry were to sound anymore.

Hanabi only slowed down when she had left the boundaries of the city and was safe in the forest. Or as safe as the animal versions of the Hungry would allow her to be. Grimacing, she pressed forward, heading for the looming wall. She recalled there'd been a river there, as well as some berry bushes. Her stomach complained, but she couldn't afford to listen to it.

She briefly wondered what would become of the few other humans living in the City, but quickly brushed any concern for them aside.

The wall was getting closer. Good, because she needed to—

"Ah!" Hanabi squealed when her foot caught on a tree root, and she tumbled into a clearing. Her heart pounding, she was about to get up when the ground suddenly collapsed beneath her.

Too surprised to even scream, Hanabi fell into the darkness below.

* * *

"Sasori no Danna."

"Hmph. Deidara."

Sasori, his red-hair a brighter shade of crimson under the white lights, stared down Deidara, who looked less than pleased to see him. A smirk forming on his lips, he asked her with no small amount of mocking in his tone, "How is... _Zetsuko-chan_? Is she as much of a failure as you are? I hear that daughters normally take after their mothers."

"Shut the fuck up." A wicked grin from her had Sasori faltering a little. "If you really want to know, yeah, her battle power's increased."

He scoffed. "Is that all? In that case, so has Zetsu's."

Deidara held his gaze, never wavering. "Exponentially. She broke out today, actually, and killed Shizune." She gave an airy little laugh. "Did you know that's the third time she's been murdered this week? Pathetic. But I digress, hm. Zetsuko's gotten stronger, and she'll fucking murder your Zetsu the next time they fight."

_Is she serious? _Sasori narrowed his eyes, unable to see any faltering or stumbling in her countenance. "I look forward to it." With that, he patted her on the shoulder, as if congratulating her for a job well done, and walked past her.

As he passed her, Deidara's features twisted into something ugly. "Tch. Bastard."

* * *

Yamanaka Ino knew where she would find Hyuuga Hinata. Praying at the same shrine with Uchiha Itachi standing behind her like a shadow, a black umbrella in hand. It wasn't raining today, so it was down.

She waited for them to finish their daily ritual a respectful distance away, leaning against a dirty pole. Her training clothes were soiled, anyway, so it mattered little to her.

It'd been an accident, a few years ago. An accident involving the Pods and the complex Cloning System of their society that had left little Hyuuga Hanabi in a coma. As for Itachi's habit of ghosting her every time she went to pray, she could only imagine that he was sharing his own grief with Hinata. It was no secret that his younger brother, Sasuke, had gone missing in the line of duty. Presumed dead. Nobody survived outside the Walls for long.

When Hinata eventually finished, she made her way over to them. Ino could feel Itachi's gaze boring into the back of her head as she said, a little more awkwardly than she would have liked, "Hey. Kiba's having a get-together on Saturday. You should come join us."

"I..." Hinata hesitated. Then she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Ino-chan, but please tell Kiba-san that I'll have to decline."

"Right. I understand." Ino started to backpedal. "Well... have a good night then, Hinata-chan. You, too, Uchiha-san."

Ino was long gone when Itachi shifted slightly, opening up his umbrella. Rain was coming. "You should have accepted."

"I can't. I have to look after Hanabi-chan and do her exercises, tomorrow. And the day after. Sunday, too."

"That's the hospital's job," he pointed out as they walked through the streets of their iron city. He coughed into the crook of his elbow, throat irritated by the fumes.

"I know. But I can't trust them to do it right." Hinata's voice was surprisingly hard. "Let me do this, Itachi-san."

"I understand. I would do the same for Sasuke."

There was a beat.

"Thank you, Itachi-san."


	2. Part I: Unravel

Mikoto rang the bell.

Itachi looked up from his tablet, where he was reading the daily news, his lips set in a firm line. Taking small sips from his tea, he would occasionally glance over at his mother, eyelids hooded and expression hidden beneath his bangs and the rim of the porcelain cup.

The bell rung one more time before Mikoto clapped her hands together and began to pray, a strange little smile on her face that Itachi couldn't quite make out the meaning of. It was somewhere in between forced and genuine.

There was a bowl of freshly made onigiri with tomatoes and okaka sitting on the shrine shelf for Sasuke to enjoy in the afterlife. Next to it was Fugaku's favorite food, yuba.

Itachi sipped his tea.

The household was morbidly quiet today, but not unusually so.

* * *

_"Ne, why are you joining the Armored Forces?"_

_The girl smiled at Hanabi, but her face wasn't quite clear. "It's expected of me, Hanabi-chan. Otou-sama... Since the Hyuuga Clan is part of the Fellowship, I have r-responsibilities to fulfill. Hanabi-chan, c-can you do me a favor, please?"_

_"Of course!"_

_She handed her a pair of scissors. Holding the tool in her hand, Hanabi felt something instinctual resonate within her._

_"I know how much you love doing my hair," the older girl stated. "I'll need it to be short s-so I can perform at my best. Can you cut it for me, please? You always know the best styles."_

_"Hai!" Beaming, Hanabi giggled as the girl carefully settled into a seiza. "Hey, um..."_

_"Yes?"_

_Hanabi hummed as hair_—_long raven locks_—_fell onto her lap. "I think you look pretty no matter what."_

* * *

Gasping, Hanabi clutched at her chest as she sat up, instantly regretting it when pain and soreness wracked her body in waves. Groaning, she lay back, trying to assess the damage. Her tiny body seemed relatively alright—just a few scratches and bruises. They could potentially become infected by some dangerous pathogen, but she'd been sick before and survived. She'd be fine. _I hope_. The soreness that hit her like a tidal wave was from not moving for a long time as well as lying splayed in an awkward position.

When she tried to stand, scrabbling at the dirt walls for some shred of support, a sharp pain shot up her ankle.

_Damn it! _Wincing, she crouched to massage her twisted ankle, veins appearing around her eyes as her power was activated. She had never given it a name, but she remembered it to be called the _Byakugan_. Instantly, her world became clearer, her Byakugan not at all dependent on light to produce an image. Biologically, it probably made little sense, but it was what it was.

Using the cavern wall as support, Hanabi limped away from the hole above her head. She had already determined that her initial entry point was far too high up for her to climb, especially when her right foot was compromised.

_I can feel a draft blowing my face. There must be another exit! _Hanabi decided. As she got further in, the air became danker and mustier, but that gentle breeze was still coaxing her deeper in. It was impossible to get lost, thankfully, as there seemed to only be one path.

As she hobbled along, she thought of the girl she had dreamed of, an alien feeling of yearning pulling at her heartstrings. _Who was she? She was someone important, wasn't she? _Her frustrations began to bubble inside her, and she clutched the strap of her satchel tighter. Why couldn't she remember anything? Even that girl, who had seemed so... so...

It was _indescribable_.

_Is that light?_

Her all-seeing power shut off, and she squinted into dark, squinted at the greenish glow that invited her closer. It was coming from around the corner, and Hanabi briefly imagined a similar glow dancing across vast, dark blue skies.

_Thud._

Her knees buckled beneath her as the wind was knocked from her chest.

_What... What is this? A boy?_

Hanabi had never seen such a gentle expression on a human face before. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she crawled forward, pressing her palm against the green crystal embedded in the cavern wall, a boy with raven hair and long lashes sleeping within.

"Hi," she whispered, eyes wide in awe. Almost desperately, she pawed at the glowing material, trying to get every feel of it. She turned on her Byakugan, and it was revealed to her that the crystal was rooted even deeper in than she had first expected. _How long has he been down here? Who _are _you?_

All the humans—men and women alike—had only ever snarled and spat at her, or challenged her for food. She always won.

Even if he seemed to be stuck in this crystal cocoon, it was nice to see a face so open and inviting.

She frowned. Now that she got a closer look at it with her Byakugan, the luminous medium seemed to be pulsing with _life_. Or almost-life. Hanabi wasn't entirely sure if there was a proper word that could describe such a sensation. Biting her lip, she scratched her fingernail across the crystal. The pulsations did a little skip, and Hanabi squeaked when she felt _life _lick at her fingers and engulf her hand.

Wary, she scooted back, cradling her hand as if it had been injured.

_No. I have to get out of here. _Hanabi didn't have to turn around to see that she had discovered a side-tunnel to the outside world. Her Byakugan was doing all the work for her. _I can't stay here any longer or something might_—

Her breath was caught in her throat when a tiny, minuscule crack appeared on the surface of the crystal. Like a spider spinning its thread, the crack stemmed outward, forming a cobweb of fissures.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Hanabi lunged for the side-tunnel, scratching away at dirt with her fingernails to make the hole bigger. She was just small enough to squeeze through—

Coughing sounded behind her and she froze.

"Where... Where the hell am I?" There was a sort of brokenness in his voice that clawed at Hanabi's heart—cursing her humanity, she withdrew herself from the tunnel and turned stiffly, shoulders tense.

"Otou-sama?" His eyes were closed. Why wasn't he opening his eyes? "Otou-sama, where are you?! Shisui?! _ITACHI_!"

A green, watery substance oozed from the crystal which he had emerged from, but Hanabi paid little attention to how the crystal was still deforming further in, just layers from releasing a round black shape into the world.

"Calm down!" Hanabi hissed, reaching out and grabbing his shoulder to steady him. He was whirling around like a blind, confused man, and she had winced when he bashed his forehead against the wall. "Oi!"

"WHERE IS MY FAMILY?!" the boy roared, lashing out at her. Hanabi rolled to the side and punched him across the face, baring her teeth in a snarl.

_Gentle expression my ass! Is this man a lunatic?! _But he was calling out to his family. That just raised more questions, and made Hanabi just a tad more reluctant to strike him again. _Think of him like a wounded animal, _she coached herself. _A proper animal, not a Hungry Animal._

As soon as he was struck, he immediately went silent, his head hanging so that his hair covered his face.

"Who are you?" he asked softly, his eyes still closed. When she didn't instantly answer, his head snapped upward, and his eyes burned with a reignited fury and outrage. "I said—"

"Hanabi," she cut him off. "I... I'm not sure if I have a family name. What about you? Who are you?"

"Me?" She almost screamed when he finally opened his eyes, his pupils red and black. "I..."

Without warning, his eyes became coal as they rolled to the back of his head, and he promptly fell into a dead faint.

Hanabi exhaled sharply. "Shit."

The last thing she heard was crystal shattering before something nailed her in the temple.

A mustard yellow eye glowed in the darkness.

* * *

Haibara's girlfriend was pregnant. Anybody who didn't know that by now was an idiot in Deidara's books. Or possibly a hermit. When Haibara heard the news, he was absolutely over the moon, sobbing during his break time to colleagues that he was going to _do his duty as a man and wed her as soon as possible_. She wondered briefly if they had signed the papers yet, but the thought soon exited her head.

She had bigger things on her plate than Haibara knocking his girlfriend up.

Namely, a meeting with the Five Kage and the Fellowship.

Every two months they called her, Sasori, and a few others to a meeting to discuss the progress of their Zetsu Experiments. It was a bi-monthly annoyance and thorn in her side—it was an excuse for their _great and worthy_ leaders to bring up her past mistakes and praise Sasori for _everything_. Honestly, it was like the man shat rainbows or something.

The government of the Obsidian Society (named after the Obsidian Era, in which they were currently living through) were composed of a mixture of leaders from the Old Societies: Rock, Leaf, Mist, Sand, and Cloud.

As Deidara stepped into the meeting hall, it was a struggle not to sneer at each and every one of them.

Sand's Gaara.

Mist's Mei.

Cloud's A.

Rock's Kurotsuchi.

And finally—

Leaf's Shimura Danzo.

The Five Kage's council, the Fellowship, were composed of a multitude of clans with politics that Deidara didn't want to get into even if someone paid her. There was a murmuring around the assembly when Sasori arrived with the others in tow, and they fanned out, standing an equal distance beside each other.

"'Sup, bitch." The man next to Deidara, Hidan, grinned at her.

She gave him a side glare. "Hidan," she grunted out, her voice dripping with venom. He wasn't the worst person in her books, but he certainly wasn't the best either. He was wearing a black haori without shirt beneath, proudly displaying his scarred chest for all the world to see. "Still sucking the dick of your _almighty god_?"

"Don't be like that. You know, you could always join me—"

From the arched podium, Danzo stood, and the double doors behind them closed. "Thank you for coming, everyone. Once again, we're here to discuss the progress your assigned experiments have made." His eyes landed on Deidara as he added, "I trust that there will be no issues. Why don't you begin, Sasori-san?"

"Certainly," the man in question obliged smoothly, dipping his chin shallowly in acknowledgement. Today, Sasori had his scouter over his eye, and though Deidara could not see it, she knew that it was sending all the information he needed to repeat into the chip in his brain. The chip that they all had. Beside her, Hidan fidgeted impatiently, tapping his crooked fingers against his thigh. "Since the last time we've all gathered, there's been a significant rise in Experiment 1's battle power. He has begun to manipulate chakra," at that, many members of the Fellowship sat up straighter, "but progress has been slow. So far, he has managed to complete the most basic exercise of sticking a leaf to his head. This month, we have had zero deaths," Deidara's eye twitched in displeasure as she thought of her own poor safety record with Zetsuko, "and zero injuries." Sasori smirked. "Which isn't particularly unusual."

"Then why include it?" Deidara bit out, rolling her eyes. Sitting on her council seat, Kurotsuchi's face pinched at her interjection.

"Quiet," Danzo ordered before Sasori could retort. "You will _not_ speak out of turn. Do so again, and you will be ejected from this meeting. Continue, Sasori-san."

Hidan looked like he wanted to say something to her—demeaning or encouraging she couldn't tell—but was wise enough to bite his tongue. After all, Danzo had just finished scolding her like a child.

"Fifty-four wins," Sasori said loftily, and Deidara's hand clenched at her side, imagining herself punching him in the face. "And zero losses this month. Experiment 1 has begun to understand the finer sides of battle—to be more specific, strategy. He has implemented his newfound skill in chakra manipulation quite nicely. He seems to have figured out that power," his piercing brown gaze slid to Deidara's stiff form, "isn't everything. In fact, I would like to volunteer him for a field assignment."

"What?!" It was Fellowship member Utatane Koharu of the small but significant Utatane Clan that had shouted. "You must be mad!"

"Not mad," Sasori assured her. "I wouldn't be suggesting such a thing if I didn't think it would produce feasible results. Besides... he is the best candidate for being the first Zetsu to ever be sent into the ruins. We can't hide behind these walls forever," his countenance darkened, "so we might as well take the first step now."

_How typically impatient of you, _Deidara sneered at him in her head. _You'll regret it when he gets ripped apart and all your work goes down the drain!_

Concerned whispers rippled throughout the assembly, but Sasori held his head high, not a single shred of regret in his body language.

Finally, Danzo made the verdict after consulting with the other Kage. "Sasori-san," he boomed. "We will consider your request. Expect to be called in at a later date. For now, let us move on to the remaining reports."

Hidan was chosen to speak next, then her.

Clearing her throat, Deidara pressed a button on the side of her own scouter, feeling a chill go down her spine as information was zapped into her brain and displayed on the inside of her scouter lens. "I am pleased to report," she began, ignoring the prickling sensation that all the stares gave her, "that Experiment Sixteen has recently had quite the boost in terms of battle power, un. In the past month, there have been seven casualties and eighteen injuries directly related to Experiment Sixteen. It has been observed that she has a higher measured bloodlust than average, and that it is directly proportional to her battle power. Currently, my team and I are working on fixing her behavior via electroshock therapy. We believe that once this is solved, she will be unrivaled in terms of raw power. No usage of chakra has been recorded quite yet, but it has been noted that her chakra coils have substantially widened since the last time we gathered, un. And considering she has yet to be authorized clearance to official training grounds," her voice went notably dryer, "I have no on the record numbers to give you."

"What about off the record ones?" A inquired.

Deidara's brow lowered as she thought of all the times Zetsuko had clashed against Sasori's Zetsu this past month. "Eight losses," she said in the end.

"Out of how many matches?" Mei prodded.

Deidara gritted her teeth. "Eight," she spat out. "But that doesn't mean—"

"Enough." Danzo silenced her. "Do not forget yourself, Deidara-san."

"Of course not." Her eyes narrowed. "How could I?"

More reports were given before the cursed meeting was finally adjourned. Not bothering to stick around, Deidara stalked out, ignoring Hidan's catcalling and the muffled chatter of the others.

"How disappointing."

Sasori's voice was scathing, and Deidara snarled, whipping around.

"What do _you_ want? Have you come to _gloat_?"

"As if I would ever stoop that low," he replied coolly. "That's more your style, isn't it? Though I suppose you have nothing to gloat about at this moment."

"Don't act as if I'm somehow inferior to you, _bastard_. You know perfectly well that if our experiments were swapped you'd have even more trouble trying to contain that brat."

"Ah, yes, bitching about your handicap makes you my equal, does it?" Sasori chuckled lowly. "Maybe in a different world, you would be. But ever since your fall from grace, I have gone on to do greater things, while you are destined to be shat on for the rest of eternity."

"Eternity?" Deidara scoffed. She marched up to him until they were almost nose to nose, her glare smoldering. "Don't make me fucking laugh. I don't need an eternity to prove my worth. Go on, yeah, and be content with your place. You do that, and then you can eat my dust, un." With that, she turned and stalked off, seething with barely contained rage.

All her life he had looked down on her.

_Soon, I'll crush you like a _bug_._

* * *

Groaning, it was the pounding headache that made her come to in the end. Feeling like she had been chewed up and then spat out, Hanabi stirred, grass tickling her arm. _What happened? I've been knocked unconscious way too many times today... _Her head still feeling fuzzy, she rolled onto her back. Now that she was looking heavenward, all she could see were trees. _Wasn't I in a cave...? _She gasped, her body jolting. _The boy! The crystal! _She sat up slowly, cracking her neck to try and rid the stiffness. _Where did he go? _Slowly, she looked around.

Once.

Twice.

"You're awake."

Hanabi jumped, alarmed, when a vaguely familiar voice called to her. "Where...?"

"Up here."

Glancing upward to the left, Hanabi finally spotted the missing boy—or, rather, the maniac who had almost attacked her back in the caves—standing on a tree. Without really aware of what she was doing, she shifted into a defensive stance.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he told her slowly, but she had a hard time believing it. With scary efficiency, he scaled down the tree, walking toward her. Briefly, Hanabi wondered what he had been doing up there in the first place.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Don't come any closer!"

He stopped trying to close the distance between them, stopping around three feet away from her. Then he spoke once more. His voice was rough and low and a tad impatient. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke." When she showed no sign of recognition, he added pointedly, "I'm a member of the Armored Forces."

"Your name means nothing to me," Hanabi said coldly. "And neither do the _Armored Forces_."

Sasuke growled, though it was more in frustration than malice. "Tch. I figured. Someone born in the wild like you wouldn't know anything."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Any wariness she might have felt toward him was still there, but a surge of irritation overwhelmed it for a moment. "'Born in the wild'?"

"You are the daughter of a criminal." He said it so matter-of-factly that she almost believed him herself. "A traitor, most likely."

"Oh yeah? And how do you know?"

"Hn. I never expected the Hyuuga to have any traitors in their ranks..."

"Answer my question!" _Hyuuga? What is he talking about? _Somehow, that word—a name?—rang some familiar bells, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it no matter how much she strained her brain.

"You're young. Nine years old, I'm guessing."

"I'm eleven."

Sasuke shrugged. "It makes little difference to me. I applaud you for surviving this long, however, but the only way a child your age could have ended up in this hellhole is by being born here. And only criminals are ever sent here long-term." Now that Hanabi looked a little closer, his entire body was tense, and she could tell that he was very tuned in with his surroundings. As if he was expecting to be attacked.

"That..." She could not find it in herself to object to his logic. She herself didn't even know how she had wound up here in the first place, most of her memories an unhelpful blur with too many gaps. "So what if I am?" Hanabi snapped in the end.

"So nothing. I don't care where you're from."

"Whatever then. Why were you up in that tree?"

"It's safer."

"Safer? From the Hungry?"

"What?" Sasuke cocked an eyebrow.

"You know, the bloodthirsty things that hunt humans."

At that, Sasuke actually had the audacity to laugh. "The Hungry? Is that what you call them? You really are wild born, aren't you?" Ignoring her vengeful growl, he went on, "For your information, they're actually called _Demons_."

"And you call me wild born?"

He scowled. "I didn't come up with it. And there are more sub-branches of them than you could possibly ever come up with." Sasuke looked around the clearing. "My team will probably arrive soon. If you don't want to be shot on sight, you should leave."

"Team? You mean from your Armored Forces?"

"Hn."

"They... wouldn't happen to be those things in suits would they?" Because now that Hanabi finally took the sight of him in fully, he was dressed exactly like a typical Other, minus the ghastly helmets.

Sasuke nodded tersely. It was a crude description at best, but he caught her drift.

"... So this is an Other's face..." Hanabi shook her head. "They haven't come for a long time, though. Are you sure they're looking for you? Because when I found you, you were stuck in a crystal."

And Sasuke's eyes widened. "_What?_"

Before Hanabi could retort, bushes rustled, and both she and Sasuke adopted a fighting stance, preparing for whatever was about to launch itself at them.

Sasuke reacted first when it finally revealed itself. "A child?"

The child blinked back at them, looking like the oddest yet most natural blend of both his and Hanabi's features and frame. The only thing out of place were the girl's piercing yellow eyes.

The Uchiha tensed up even more when the girl wobbled up to him, staring up at his disturbed expression.

Hanabi released a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. "Who—?"

And the girl clung to Sasuke. "Otou-chan!"


End file.
